Paying five dollars or more at the gas pump is all part of the progressive plan. If you think that statement is nonsense, consider the left’s reaction to the skyrocketing cost of gas, and the mental fog will begin to clear. For years, nay decades, the gas haters have launched every arrow in their quiver to wean the American public off the evils of fossil fuels, and what has come of it?
Not much.
One of the most popular vehicles on the American market is the Ford F-150 truck. The manufacturer claims this beast gets 25 miles per gallon in the city – owners say it’s more like 17 at best. Reasonable people might think that’s not too bad, but to the green folks among us, it’s merely another example of excessive consumerism that must be quashed. And if we won’t do it voluntarily, why, then they’ll force us into it.
In November of 2021, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported the average cost of a gallon of gas ranged from a low of $2.25 to a high of $3.41. Today the national average for a gallon of gas is around four dollars and rapidly rising, depending on where you live.
Do not believe for a second that nothing can be done about this. There are various actions that the government could employ to take the bite out of high petroleum prices for the consumer. But we need to understand those on the left do not want that to happen. If they did, Democrats would not have killed the American Energy Independence from Russia Act. They stopped it in the House because it would have meant ramping up the Keystone XL pipeline, and the environmental lunatics cannot abide such an unholy act.
Well, we’re independent of Russian oil now, aren’t we? So, what has the administration done to ease the pain for the average American hemorrhaging c-notes at the pump? Nothing. There are several reasons for this.
Consumer Control via Wallet
As Liberty Nation’s chief political correspondent Graham Noble noted in a recent article, the left seeks to control through deprivation. He asserts that an effective “method of instilling total subservience” is to make “certain consumer goods too expensive or near impossible to obtain.”
There’s another rationale for letting the prices continue to rise: the government rakes in more of your money. According to Liberty Nation’s economic guru Andrew Moran, “The government takes approximately $85 billion every year in gas taxes: a federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon and a state tax as high as 58.2 cents in Pennsylvania. In total, 20% of gas prices are composed of federal, state, and local taxes.” Of course, if the Biden Administration wanted to take a bit of the sting out of the pump, they could drop, suspend, or reduce federal taxes. But that’s not even on the table.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Instead, the public is fed verbal pablum by pushing the #PutinsGas hashtag on Twitter. Gas prices, Biden fecklessly whined this week, are “going to go up,” and “Russia is responsible.”
But because fossil fuels are Satan incarnate to the left, the desire to assist the public and share the pain at the pump is rejected. It’s reminiscent of those days when your mother shoved a tablespoon of cod liver oil down your throat. “It’s good for you,” was the mantra, only to find out later that cod liver oil did nothing for a growing child. Now one can find articles on the internet citing “three reasons to avoid it.” Similarly, those on the left wholeheartedly believe gas is not good for us, so the demonization of fossil fuels continues apace. However, there is another side to the fossil fuel coin progressives refuse to see, as Andrew Moran noted:
“We take oil for granted. We don’t think of how much oil has contributed to our society. Everything from ambulances rushing to sick patients to the import of coffee and avocados, oil has done more for the American people than Greenpeace ever did.”
No matter how hard one tries, the left will never be convinced of these simple and logical facts because hate is rarely rational. But don’t fool yourself – much could be done about this rise in gas prices — it’s just that the folks in charge of the Republic will not permit it. If you want to avoid high gas prices, they counter, take public transportation, buy an electric car, or better yet, walk.
~ Read more from Leesa K. Donner.
